Tea For Two (4 page)

His gaze glittered in the near darkness. “You
have proof of this union, I trust. The hall of records in the
village will have recorded the marriage, and the child’s
birth.”

“Naturally,” she stammered. “But no one can
prove it at this hour.”

“Show him to me, then.” His eyes scanned the
room. “Show me your son.”

“He’s sleeping, of course. It’s the middle of
the night, my lord.” Miracle of miracles, all of the children were
still asleep, though she couldn’t imagine how.

As if to ruin her tenuous stack of lies, Kora
started wailing. Shannah moved automatically toward the bedroom,
sidestepping the dog without a thought.

“Kora has nightmares,” Shannah explained. “I
have to get her before she wakes the others.”

She breathed a sigh of relief when she
stepped into their shared bedroom and escaped Lord Brendan’s
presence for a few precious moments. She knew there was no way to
support her lies, and her mind raced for excuses as she picked Kora
up off her sleeping mat and carried her into the main room.

The child provided a wonderful barrier
between her and the viscount. Shannah sat in her mother’s chair and
wrapped Kora’s blanket around the both of them, as her shawl had
slipped down her back.

“Hush, love,” she cooed. “You’re okay
now.”

“It’s a monster,” Kora sobbed. “It’s gonna
eat me.”

“No, baby,” Shannah said. “There are no
monsters. You’re safe now. I’ve got you. It was just a dream.” She
started humming Kora’s favorite lullaby to soothe her.

Shannah glanced at Lord Brendan, lurking in
the shadows of her home. He stood with his legs braced apart and
his arms folded, the only thing that caught the candle’s light was
his white shirt. He certainly wasn’t smiling, or his teeth would
show.

“No, Mama,” Kora said, demanding her
attention. “The monster is still here!”

Mortified, Shannah realized her sister was
pointing at the viscount. She hurried to calm her. “No, honey.
That’s Lord Brendan. Remember he was here before? He’s not a
monster.”
I hope
.

Brendan stepped out of the shadows slowly,
with the grace of a large cat. He knelt by the chair, giving Kora a
full view of his face. “See, child? I am no monster. You’re
perfectly safe here.”

Shannah offered him a relieved smile over
Kora’s head as she felt her sister relax in her arms. She was about
to reach for a handkerchief when Kora used the edge of her blanket
to wipe her nose. Shannah sighed. Someday, perhaps, her baby sister
would learn manners.

But Lord Brendan captured her with his eyes.
“Our conversation is not done,” he whispered, his voice hard.

Shannah tried one last approach. “I’ve
nothing more to say on the matter,” she told him, her chin going up
a notch. “You are my employer, my lord, but my family life is not
your business. You certainly have no right to barge into my home in
the night and demand painful explanations about my past.”

He growled low in his throat and stood,
taking a step back. Kora whimpered and clung to Shannah. So much
for his not being a monster.

“It’s all right,” she said to Kora. “Here.”
Shannah put the child on her feet and wrapped the blanket around
her. “Why don’t you go cuddle with Matt until you fall asleep? I’ll
join you in a moment.”

It took another nudge but Kora scurried past
Lord Brendan and back into the bedroom. Shannah stood and rewrapped
her shawl around her shoulders. As she did so she maintained eye
contact with the viscount, so she saw when his eyes raked over her
again. His jaw tightened and he took a step toward her.

“You’re a widow, then,” he said. “A married
woman who has born a child. According to your own words.”

If Shannah’s chin went up any more her neck
would snap. “Yes, my lord.”

He lifted his hand and grasped her shoulder,
not painfully but firmly. “Then you know a man’s touch.” His other
hand brushed across her cheek.

Utterly at a loss, Shannah didn’t dare move.
She simply stared at him, her eyes wide.

Lord Brendan leaned close to her ear. “Your
innocence betrays you.” His warm breath swept across her neck.
“You’re no more a mother than I am.”

Her quavering response came a heartbeat too
late for credibility. “I am his mother.”

Lord Brendan lowered his face until their
noses almost touched. He tilted his head slightly and his lips
barely brushed hers. “Liar.”

Before she could recover, he’d stepped out
the door and disappeared into the night.

CHAPTER 8

Brendan paced the length of his study the
next morning, his agitation evident in every step. Shannah was
late. He looked again at the hands on the mantle clock. Quite
late.

His steps faltered as his thoughts paused
once again on that almost kiss. Brendan sighed. He didn’t know what
had come over him in that moment, he only knew that he wanted to
confirm once and for all that Shannah could in no way be the
child’s mother.

He should have waited until the daylight
hours when they could have a conversation in the safety of his
study, fully dressed, not with the light of the candle setting
Shannah’s caramel skin aglow. Brendan knew full well he had no
business storming in her home in the dead of night, overwhelming
her and demanding answers to questions that had gone unasked for
too long. But he had done it, rushed off without thinking the
situation through, and perhaps made everything worse.

What would she say when she saw him now, if
she ever did arrive? Would she give him the set down he
deserved?

Or had she taken the children and run
away?

Brendan shook his head, his instinct telling
him that Shannah would not do something so rash. She loved her
family and wouldn’t endanger them in that way.

Was she just so loathe to see him that she
was late on purpose?

“My lord?” Justin, one of his groomsmen,
stood at the open door.

“What is it?”

“You asked to be kept informed about matters
at the coast, sir,” Justin said. “One of the fishermen this morning
said he’d seen some suspicious men lurking about.”

Brendan drew himself up. “Pirates?” There’d
been increased raids of late, all along Brundidge’s coastline.
Brendan personally felt their monarch didn’t pay enough attention
to securing the most vulnerable areas, but he was biased because
the nearest beach proved to be one of those places.

“He didn’t say that, sir, only that they were
strangers to him and his kin. And that they may have been up to no
good.”

“Send Dukes and Colton out to have a look
around,” Brendan told him. “If these men are still around, I want
to know about it.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll do it right away. It would be
a shame if we lost another of our young women to those louts.”

Brendan felt his stomach drop as he watched
Justin leave. Just a few months earlier, men the locals identified
as pirates had kidnapped three local girls and tried to escape with
them. Brendan and his men saved two, but the beasts masquerading as
men managed to get the third girl onto their ship.

Shannah, walking alone through the woods in
the wee hours, would be a prime target for such nefarious men.

What time had the fisherman seen these
suspicious characters?

Brendan shouted for Justin to wait, and raced
after him.

***

Shannah cursed herself a hundred times for
being the fool, which was about all she could do slung across the
back of her abductor’s horse. The foul-smelling man had a tight
grip on the ropes that bound her hands since she’d managed to slip
off the horse and almost escape to the trees twice now.

If they were intent on stealing her away from
her family, she wasn’t about to make it easy on them.

Her struggles hadn’t gained her much, except
for the ropes rubbing her wrist raw and the jagged cut across her
cheek where the fiend had struck her. Her only hope was to delay
her kidnappers long enough that someone would find them and rescue
her.

Shannah placed the blame for her predicament
squarely on her employer’s head. If Lord Brendan hadn’t interrupted
her precious few hours of sleep the night before, then she may have
heard these men tromping across her path before she stumbled
directly into them. But she’d been too tired as she walked to the
manor to think clearly.

Her kidnappers hadn’t wasted any time
bragging about their plans for her, and Shannah experienced a grim
satisfaction when her stomach emptied her meager breakfast onto one
of them. That satisfaction hadn’t lasted long, since the same brute
she’d vomited on was the one carrying her now. She couldn’t be sure
if his horrible smell was all him, or partly her.

Now, though, she’d have no chance of getting
away unless he loosened his grip on her, which seemed unlikely. And
the gag in her mouth prevented her from crying out with any effect
at all.

“We’re not far now,” the one in the lead
said. “Soon we’ll have our haul safely away.”

Shannah took immediate offense, not that it
did her any good; but to be referred to as
haul
chafed. She
glanced at the bundles the four men carried and knew they’d stolen
food and provisions from her neighbors. Was that why they’d come
ashore, to pick up supplies? Was her abduction then merely an
afterthought?

The leader threw up his hand and everyone
stopped. “I hear something,” he whispered.

Please let it be someone to rescue me!
Shannah prayed. She’d done all she could on her own.

More hand gestures from the leader and the
men fanned out, effectively disappearing into the trees. Her
horse’s reins were handed to the leader while its rider slunk
away.

Lord Brendan rode Cinnamon through the trees,
directly at them. Shannah’s horse reared, nearly dropping her,
before the ruffian leader forced its head down again. The viscount
pulled Cinnamon up short, stopping directly in front of her
captor.

“Release the girl,” he said, “and I won’t let
the magistrate string you up with your fellows!”

The man laughed. “Are you going to make me,
yer lordship?”

Brendan drew his sword. “I could, make no
mistake. But that’s not my purpose.”

His opponent sneered, showing blackened
teeth. “Oh? And just what is your purpose?”

“I’m a distraction.”

Shannah twisted to view the movement on her
left and was shocked to see one of the groomsmen from the manor
dragging her original captor by the scruff. Justin threw the man
forward, he groaned but did not get up.

“He’ll live, my lord,” Justin said, a fierce
frown on his face. “Though he may regret it.”

More sounds, and Shannah tried to see, but
could not get a good enough view from her position. She looked at
the leader, whose face had paled considerably. His eyes darted from
Brendan to Justin and behind him, to where she could only assume
more help had arrived.

“Now, release her,” Brendan commanded, his
tone leaving no room for debate.

The fiend let go of the reins but Justin
grabbed the horse’s bridle before it could get far. Shannah glared
at the leader of villains, certain he’d done that deliberately—he
probably hoped to escape while they stopped her runaway horse.

“You’ll also return everything you stole,”
Brendan continued. “And you can deliver a message to your captain
for me. Tell him to never again darken our shores with his
trash.”

He sheathed his sword and led Cinnamon
alongside her horse. With one hand, he scooped her up before him
and then urged Cinnamon away from the scene. Shannah fought tears
of relief until he slowed to a stop.

“Let’s get you unbound,” he said, his voice
soft and so close to her ear that she shivered. “My, Shannah, what
have you gotten yourself into?”

My Shannah
. It startled her how much
she liked to hear the words spoken together, by him.

Lord Brendan dismounted and pulled her to her
feet, first working the knots that bound her wrists and then
pulling away the gag with firm fingers. “Is that better?”

Shannah tried to say yes, but her throat
closed up and she started to shake. Without a word Brendan pulled
her to his chest and wrapped his arms around her. When Shannah’s
knees gave out, he sank to the ground with her, never loosening his
hold.

“It’s all right,” he said. “It’s the shock of
your experience settling in.” He kept one arm around her as he
shrugged out of his jacket and draped it across her shoulders.
“Just try to relax, and know your safe now.”

She nodded, bumping his chin with her head.
Her voice shook but she forced out the words. “What will happen to
those men?”

Brendan let out a harsh sigh. “I should turn
them over to the magistrate, but I’ll keep my word. They did
release you, in their way. Besides, I want their captain to receive
my message. Their kind needs to know that we will defend our people
and property.”

His tone made her shiver for a reason
separate from the shock. She could feel the fury bleeding off of
him. “Are you all right?”

Brendan laughed. “Listen to you, asking after
me when you’ve had such a morning! You are one of a kind,
Shannah.”

She didn’t reply, and he didn’t speak again
until her shaking had mostly subsided. “Better?”

“Yes, thank you.” She pulled back to look
into his face, recognizing her mistake almost immediately. They
were too close, with his arms wrapped so protectively around her.
When he turned his chocolate brown gaze upon her, their noses
almost touched. She could feel his breath against her face.

“I should get you back to the house,” he
said, his voice husky. “Millie is quite worried about you.”

Shannah tried to nod, tried to be concerned
over making her friend worry, but she could only find the strength
to keep from staring at his mouth, wishing he’d give her a proper
kiss.